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Rating

8

Qualities

Comprehensive

Visionary

Background

Recommendation

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash and other cryptocurrencies are monetary exchange media that are massively disrupting traditional banking platforms. Behind these digital tenders, however, is the innovative framework of blockchain, which is transforming myriad industries, perhaps none more rapidly than the financial sector. Fintech experts Rebecca Lewis, John McPartland and Rajeev Ranjan provide clarity and detail on the distributed ledger technology, along with important insights into its evolution. getAbstract recommends this robust primer to investors and executives.

About the Authors

Rebecca Lewis is a financial analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, where JohnMcPartland is a senior policy adviser. Rajeev Ranjan is a senior vice president at Citigroup.

Summary

While cryptocurrencies generate headlines, the pioneering infrastructure behind them is blockchain, also known as distributed ledger technology (DLT). DLT is unique in that users – or “nodes” – record their own data and communicate the changes to the network in real time, rather than relying on a central institution.

Bitcoin employs the DLT architecture known as a “permissionless network,” indicative of an open framework that multiple nodes can join and input information as needed. Users of permissionless networks agree that any changes to the database are final and...